TWO teenagers have escaped unhurt after their car spun off the road into the same stretch of canal where 12-year-old Cameron Weir saved his brother and sister from drowning eight days earlier.

Mia Lindop, 18, and Chris Sayers, 19, were approaching the slip road at Junction 9 of the M53 at 11pm on Sunday when their BMW came off - at the same spot as the Weirs' car left the road the previous week.

The car slid out of control through a gap in the wooden fence, which had not been repaired since the Weirs' accident, and ended up floating in the canal.

Mia, of Mosslands Close in Great Sutton, said: 'I didn't realise we were in the water. It was only when Chris told me we were that I realised and then I just sat there for a moment, shocked.'

Chris, of Ellesmere Port, added: 'I saw the water up round the windows and thought 'we have got to get out', but I didn't know at first we were in the canal.

'Then I saw the bank so I undid Mia's seatbelt and opened the door and pushed her out then got out myself.'

Both escaped with aches and bruises, but Mia says she has not slept since the accident.

'When I close my eyes I see myself in the car in the water and the most frightening thing is the water,' she said. 'I think if it was any other kind of crash, it would not have affected me in this way.'

Chris and Mia will be seeking damages after the accident, which they think would have been prevented if the Highways Agency had erected proper safety fencing at the spot.

Chris said: 'I have only ever had one other accident, where I hit the motorway barrier then bounced off it and that was it. If those barriers had been on this road, I would have been in the same situation - instead of having the car in the canal.'

They have also raised questions about the state of the road, which they say was covered in mud and oil at the point where they went off.

Beryl Weir said she was shocked and shaken to hear a couple had been involved in an identical accident to her family.

She added: 'This confirms my fears that there is something very wrong with the design of the road - perhaps the camber. There really must be an investigation as soon as possible before somebody is actually killed.'

PC Charles Valentine, of Cheshire Constabulary's motorways unit, was the investigating officer in the Weir family's accident and says he has also heard there was an accident at the scene two months ago.

He said a standard metal barrier lines most of the slip road, but does not cover the spot where these accidents happened.

He added: 'Where they have gone off, there was a standard wooden fence put up by the Home Office to protect the motorway from livestock, but it does not stop cars.

'The geography of that location means that if a car spins off it will roll down the bank and into the canal. If the metal barrier was brought back about 20 yards or so, it would stop that happening.

Police have now made recommendations to the Highways Agency for the barrier to be lengthened.

Clive Naish, a Highways Agency spokesman, said: 'After any accident, the Highways Agency will consult with the police to try to ascertain the cause.

'If there is a concentration of accidents at any one spot we will look at how to prevent them.

'As far as the fencing is concerned, this stretch of road was built some time ago and met the standards at the time and that is still the case.'